Commissioning Worship at ANTS

October 17, 2012

A wonderful service today at my alma mater. You have got to love it when your school hits it out of the park. The Field Education program at Andover Newton Theological School is a vital enterprise. I tell anyone who will listen that I wouldn't be in ministry at all if it wasn't for my Field Education experience at ANTS and the United Church of Christ, Congregational of Burlington, MA. I had inklings that I might be able to enter the ministry, but it was not until Field Education with mentor Peggy Derick (retired) that I learned I could love it.

Field education is where the rubber hits the road in seminary education. It's where your intentions and the office of the pastor meet and meld and sometimes clash, and it's where some of your fitness for ministry is discerned. As such, it's about transitions, and finding your voice, and taking risks. The chapel service at ANTS today captured all this, and Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Jones preached about how to take risks well. I was inspired, and it bet it was similar for Teaching Parish Committee members felt the same. I would highly recommend you come up for this service next year if you have a student minister at your church.